Hi folks,
Following up on the last post, this post is more specifically geared toward how I balance my pages in my comics. This kind of thinking can also be applied to illustration work as well, but the examples I have below are pieces from my most recent comic pages, because I feel that my comics require a little more complexity in flow and legibility than my single illustrations needs to convey.
What am I looking at?
My brain! Sort of! When working on a page, I always imagine my work in large blocks of black and white, and then after, I add tones to further push the composition and give areas some additional clarity. This preplanning allows me to not worry so much about balancing my pages toward the finishing stages.
So what kind of large blocks of black and white do I think of? Well, these are some of the basic shapes I find myself drawn to!
As you can see, each box has a different focus, and it’s not necessarily based on lighting. It’s more about the silhouette and composition. Here are some quick sketches that utilize some of these ideas.
One other important factor to my work is that I tend to allow characters and objects blend into the large blocks of black/tones. I don’t mind if details get cut out, and I avoid the “white halo” effect as much as possible. It’s a case by case basis, but it’s very lovely when you have a composition/silhouette built with the spot black in mind.
Practice
Here’s a little exercise that I used to do when I visited Museums frequently. I would take my pen and block out paintings very quickly in my sketchbook to capture their composition in black and white. It helped me figure out not only lighting of a piece, but reimagine the paintings in shapes.
The example piece below is by Thomas Chambers. I thought the artwork was stunning and had amazing shapes, so I wanted to break it down as fast as I could.
There isn’t much to say between each step that I hadn’t already explained, but I hope this helps you all think of your work in shapes! Try this out on your favorite artwork if you’re feeling stuck, or on a movie still that really captured your eye. Keep it simple and fast. Good luck!